


leap of faith

by braveatheart



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, i love these two so much wtf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 04:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12424731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braveatheart/pseuds/braveatheart
Summary: Psi attacks Lena, and Kara is there to pick up the pieces.





	leap of faith

_Knock, knock, knock._

Lena jumps, and she feels her heart skip a beat in surprise. She isn’t expecting anyone at the LCorp office, particularly not this late, so the sudden knock to the door has her puzzled. She turns from where she stands on the balcony to get a better view of the door.

The woman standing in the doorway has a familiar face. Lena’s seen it before, she’s sure of it - but still, she cannot place the woman. As she takes a few tentative steps into her office, she feels a sense of uneasiness wash over her. The blonde follows her steps, and Lena doesn’t like the look in her eyes. It’s devious, and she exudes a villainous air about her. Lena swallows down her uneasiness and stops in front of her desk, allowing herself to lean against it. She tilts her chin upward as she speaks.

“Can I help you?”

“You can,” the blonde woman replies, her own chin pointing toward the ceiling. She takes a couple of steps forward, her slender legs reaching forward with each step. Her hands clasp behind her back. They remain as she stops, fully inside the room now and only a few feet from Lena. Her eyebrow quirks, and Lena swears she can see the ghost of a smile on her lips.

“I didn’t have anyone scheduled this late,” Lena says, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “What business do you have here?”

The blonde smiles now, as devious as a grin as her devilish eyes, and takes another step forward.

“I’m in the business of… research, we’ll say,” she says, searching for a word. “Psychological research.”

Lena doesn’t reply. The idea of this mystery woman’s “psychological research” doesn’t sit well with the raven haired CEO. Still, she does not allow her discomfort to show; instead, she tilts her head slightly, listening to the blonde’s pitch.

When the woman realizes she’s got Lena’s attention, she grins. No - not a grin. A grin insinuates kindness and happiness, gentleness. The way this woman’s lips curl up at the corners, her eyes narrowing as the demented smile pushes her cheeks upward is anything but kind. There’s something sinister in her expression. This time, Lena can’t help the way she audibly gulps.

“Who are you?” she finally asks, dropping her confident facade. The woman steps toward her, that sinister smile still pulling her lips unnaturally upward, and closes the distance between them. Lena feels her heart thudding in her chest, an overwhelming sense of danger making it hard to breathe. She needs to escape, to get away from this less-than-human unwanted visitor. Her eyes dart around the room, but there’s no escape.

She’s trapped.

“Leave,” she croaks, cursing herself for the meekness in her voice. “You need to leave.”

She knows as she says the word that it’s of no use. The closer the blonde gets, the less control she has. Her vision blurs at the edges, and a strange wooziness washes over her. She stumbles, grabbing at the edge of her pearly white desk to keep from falling.

“You see, I’m interested in fear,” the woman says. Her voice sounds far away, and it echoes unnaturally in Lena’s ears. “I thrive on the fears wedged deepest in people’s minds.”

Already, Lena’s heart is pounding and her breathing is beginning to accelerate. Each breath feels harder to pull in than the last, like her throat is closing in on itself. Black spots dot the edges of her vision. She wonders for a moment whether she’s going to pass out, but the mystery woman doesn’t give her that chance.

“So...let’s see,” she begins, and Lena thinks she knows what’s about to come. “What makes Lena Luthor cower in fear?”

The world is throbbing around her, zooming in and out like a camera that’s malfunctioned. Her eyes can’t focus; the second they settle on an object, it’s suddenly miles away, then right in front of her. Her stomach turns, the crashing waves making her dizzy. She staggers forward in an attempt to reach the blonde.

Suddenly, she disappears. In a blink, the woman is gone, and Lena is alone in her office.

She’s sitting on the floor in front of her desk - or rather, beneath it. Her back is flush against the cold metal, and at some point, she’s pulled her knees up to her chest. She gasps and sputters as her lungs try desperately to pull in air, but it feels as though something is constricting her throat.

“Lena?”

Lena’s head snaps toward the doorway, expecting to see the mystery woman. Instead, a familiar blonde stands in her place, donning a soft blue sweater with a button-up peeking over the collar. Her hair is pulled back into a simple ponytail, and her glasses are falling down her nose. She looks into the room with concern, a puzzled expression on her features.

“Kara,” Lena breathes, willing herself to calm down. She fights the way her throat wants to constrict and forces air into her lungs. The world is still spinning, but not like it was before. Confident that she can stand, she pulls herself up as gracefully as possible from beneath her desk.

“What were you doing down there?” Kara asks, confused, as she steps further into the room. The office doors click shut behind her, leaving just the two of them in the dimly lit quarters. The only light is the lamp on Lena’s desk.

“I - I don’t know,” she admits, embarrassed to have been found in the midst of her panic. “I don’t know.”

Kara doesn’t reply. Instead, she simply sits on the white couch across the room, propping her head on her elbow. She pats the space next to her, inviting Lena to join.

Lena pushes away the sensation of uneasiness tugging at her chest as she makes her way to the couch, plopping gently onto the cushion next to Kara. She props her head up in the same way, facing the blonde.

“What brings you here tonight?” she asks, her voice still tremulous but not nearly as badly as before. She debates telling the blonde about what happened moments before, but decides against it.

(For a moment, she debates collapsing into Kara’s arms and telling her how terrifying it was, but she decides against that, too.)

“I… wanted to talk to you about something,” Kara replies, seeming to think about each word before she says it. “About us.”

Lena’s heart stops. Just for a moment.

“Us?”

The word is more of a squeak, but it’s all the raven haired woman can manage. A million ideas race through her mind, thousands of possibilities and speculations on what Kara might want to say. Still, she forces herself to quiet her mind and listen, instead.

“Yeah,” Kara says, sounding uneasy. She takes a deep breath, and her eyes fall to her lap.

Something about the way she suddenly seems uncomfortable makes Lena panic all over again. She holds her breath to prevent it shaking, then tilts her head. She doesn’t trust her voice, so she hopes that Kara will take the cue to keep talking.

“I um… I’ve noticed how you act around me,” she says, taking the hint. “The way you look at me.”

Lena gulps.

“And how do I look at you?”

Kara sighs, looking down. She doesn’t meet Lena’s eyes when she speaks.

“Like you feel something for me. Something… more,” she replies, shifting.

Lena feels her eyes begin to sting as she realizes what’s happening. Everything in her seems to fall, and she wishes that she could melt into the white leather and disappear in its blankness. Anything would be better than this.

“I’m not… I don’t….”

“Don’t,” Lena whispers. She wants to look away, but it’s as though she’s trapped there, hostage, forced to witness this rejection against her will. She just wants to get far away, to run, to fly, to jump -

The world is spinning again, throbbing in and out and it’s getting harder to breathe.

“Lena, I’m sorry, it’s just -”

She chuckles. Kara Danvers chuckles before her. It’s not the humorless laugh used to fill space and divert from discomfort. No - this is a real, truly amused chuckle.

Kara Danvers is laughing at her. Mocking her.

“Did you really think I was into you that way?” she asks incredulously. Lena is shattering, cracks splitting her open every which way. Every second Kara keeps staring at her like that, the cracks deepen. She finds herself wishing that she would just break already. Disappear.

“No, Kara,” she replies cooly, her voice like ice. “I didn’t.”

“That didn’t stop you,” Kara replies, rolling her eyes. Every second she sits there, Lena gets closer and closer to coming undone.

“I think you should leave,” she says, wanting Kara to go away for the first time ever. “Please.”

Kara huffs in disbelief, raising her eyebrows. It makes Lena feel small and inferior, and her eyes burn further yet. She’s seconds away from breaking, and she’ll be damned if Kara is there to see it.

“What, I reject you and you can’t handle it?”

The world is spinning faster now. Lena’s vision tunnels, and all she can see is Kara’s horrible and judgmental expression staring back at her. She screws her eyes shut, no longer able to handle the hateful glare, and tries to regain her senses. She can’t breathe; her chest is tight and her throat is nearly closed. The lack of oxygen is taking its toll. She’s slowly fading, falling, falling…

“Lena.”

No… no. She can’t hear her voice. She can’t hear the hatred, the judgment. She can’t hear the rejection that she always knew was coming, much as she tried to deny it.

“Lena… Lena you’re okay… you’re okay.”

She can’t open her eyes. She won’t. She can’t look at Kara, pretending to care, pretending to feel something other than scrutiny and conviction. Her hands involuntarily fly upward to cover her ears and block out the sound of her voice. She’s not breathing, now, or at least it doesn’t feel like it; her lungs won’t pull in any air. She’s suffocating, and the darkness of unconsciousness is pulling her in.

She stops resisting, and she allows herself to fall.

 

Xx

 

Lena comes to a few moments later. She doesn’t open her eyes; at first, she can’t feel anything, let alone see. It’s as though her body is numb and her senses have all but disappeared.

Slowly, sensation returns. The world is no longer spinning, and there’s a dim light illuminating the backs of her eyelids. Her chest doesn’t feel so tight anymore. Though her breath shudders, she’s still breathing. Her throat has finally relaxed so that she may pull in air without choking.

“Lena.”

Her blood runs cold.

When Lena’s eyes snap open, the first thing she registers are thin black frames that outline ocean blue eyes staring down at her. She’s wearing that blue sweater with a button-up peeking over the collar, and her eyes hold that same look of concern as before.

Upon further examination Lena realizes that they’re on the floor of her LCorp office, and the clock on the wall reads 12:30. It’s pitch black outside, so it must be the middle of the night. Kara’s arms are wrapped around her, and her torso rests in the blonde’s lap.

“Hey… it’s me,” she says, and her voice is so soft. “You’re okay.”

Lena lurches upward, on her feet faster than she expects. Dizziness creeps in and fogs her mind, blackness dotting her vision as the blood rushes to her brain. She fights the urge to throw her arms out to steady herself, refusing to show weakness. Instead, she simply waits, unmoving, for the dizziness to fade.

When it does, Kara is on her feet, too, looking at Lena in bewilderment. She looks almost afraid, as though Lena is a grenade with the pin teetering on falling out.

“I told you to leave,” Lena spits, turning around. She faces her desk, searching for something to do. A few stray papers look mildly unorganized, so the CEO takes it upon herself to gather them and find a folder to place them in. She taps the papers against the desk to straighten them, nearly missing Kara’s next words.

“I… Lena, I just got here,” she says. She sounds genuinely confused, and Lena rolls her eyes though the blonde can’t see her. She reaches for a manila folder across her desk and files the papers away.

“So now you want to act like nothing happened? That’s low, Kara,” she says, finally turning around to glare at the reporter behind her.

The instant she does, she almost regrets it. Kara gazes at her with the warmest and most concerned eyes she’s ever seen. She never sees Kara look at anyone else this way, perhaps with Alex being the exception. But still, despite everything that’s just happened, Lena can tell - she means what she says.

“How is that possible? You just… we…”

“We what?”

Lena meets the blonde’s eyes again, gulping. Her lips are parted as she tries to find her voice, but nothing comes out.

Kara walks slowly over to the couch, that white leather couch, and sits down. She pulls her feet up so that she’s sitting crosslegged on the cushion, and she gestures toward the space next to her. _Come sit with me._

Lena sighs, still confused, and obliges Kara’s wishes. She sits on the couch and pulls her legs up, then props her elbow on the back of the couch the way she had before. There’s a jolt of anxiety in her chest at the memory, and she opts instead to mimic Kara’s position next to her.

“What happened?” Kara asks. There it is again; that soft, concerned voice reserved for a select few. Despite the fear still pulling at Lena’s chest, she knows for certain now that Kara is genuine. She truly doesn’t know what’s happened.

Yet, Lena doesn’t know how to explain it. What was it? A dream? A hallucination?

Who was that woman, and what did she do?

“I um… a woman came here,” she begins, surmising that it would be easiest to begin with this strange visitor. “Blonde hair, a sinister smile.”

“Oh…”

Lena raises her eyebrow at the expression. It appears as though Kara recognizes the description.

“What did she do to you?” Kara asks, gently ignoring Lena’s unspoken inquiry. “It must have been horrible.”

“It was,” Lena confirms quietly, her words barely coming out above a whisper. Her eyes fall to the white leather, the prospect of meeting Kara’s concerned gaze suddenly too much for her to handle.

“Talk to me,” Kara prods, but in such a way that Lena knows she could deny the blonde’s request with no resistance. The feeling of safety is slowly returning, drastically different from the vulnerability she felt minutes ago. Still, there’s an air of uncertainty that holds her back.

“To tell you is to risk losing everything,” Lena admits. “I don’t want to risk that.”

“Lena, there’s nothing you could tell me that could make me go away,” Kara promises.

She is so sure, so convicted in her words, that for a moment Lena forgets she was ever scared at all. She meets the blonde’s eyes again and feels herself melt into the comforting blue staring back at her. Her fear falls away, and she’s left only with a comfortable warmth settling in her chest. It is a stark difference from the ice that had filled her veins, and she allows herself to bask in it for a fleeting moment.

As quickly as the warmth comes, the chill of fear returns. Lena takes a sharp breath, letting it stay in her lungs for a second before she pushes it past her lips.

Kara sits patiently, staring but not pushing. Lena knows it’s only her imagination, but she thinks that she can hear the blonde’s heart racing. Perhaps it is just her own hammering in her chest, feeling as if it will burst through if it doesn’t slow down.

Soft fingers intertwine unexpectedly with her own, leaving her shuddering breath stuck in her throat.

God, her hands are so _soft._

Lena looks down at their fingers, locked around each other as if sculpted to fit, and allows herself a moment to soak it all in. She studies the small callous on the side of Kara’s middle finger near the first knuckle. Hours of holding a pen and scrawling thoughts onto a notepad has left her with a token of her efforts. It is completely and utterly Kara, and Lena gets lost in this small piece of her.

“What are you afraid of?”

Lena sighs, her head tilting slightly to the right. She is helpless to defend herself against Kara’s questions. She can no longer hold up her walls. They crumble to dust as she looks up, meeting Kara’s curious gaze.

“As a businesswoman, I thrive on risk,” she begins. “I love the thrill of a new investment that I don’t know will succeed, but could reap great rewards if it does.”

“And what about you?” Kara asks. “What about Lena?”

Lena sighs, a small, sad smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

“Not so much,” she admits. Kara’s thumb runs across the top of her knuckles, and the raven haired woman forces herself to focus on the sensation. She grounds herself in the feeling.

“How about this,” Kara begins. She shifts, not letting go of Lena’s hand, and lets her legs hang over the edge of the couch. She scoots closer to Lena, effectively closing the space between the two of them. “We can both take a leap of faith.”

Lena raises her eyebrow. “How so?”

“There’s something you’re scared to tell me, and there’s something I’m scared to tell you,” Kara begins, tentatively admitting that she holds a secret, too. “So we can both take a leap of faith.”

Lena gulps. “Okay,” she agrees shakily, still not entirely confident. Still, Kara has offered to be scared with her, and she figures that it’s a better option than being scared alone. She vaguely wonders what Kara might have to tell her, but her own nervousness outweighs her curiosity.

“Together?” Lena asks quietly. It is more of a plead than anything, but she won’t admit that aloud.

Kara nods, taking a steadying breath. She purses her lips, and her eyebrows furrow the way that they do when she’s concentrating on something hard enough. Lena bites back a grin as she holds Kara’s determined gaze.

They take a deep breath, and spit the words out before they can think about what they’re saying.

“I think I’m falling in love with you.”

“I’m Supergirl.”

Lena could collapse right then and there. She said the words out loud, finally, after months of keeping them inside and refusing to admit it. They’re out, now, no longer weighing on her mind. She’s said them now.

Kara looks terrified as she stares back at Lena, waiting for some sort of response. She looks perhaps even more afraid than Lena is. Pushing back her fear, she decides to address Kara’s confession first.

“I know,” she says simply.

“You.. you know?” Kara asks incredulously. It is a different type of incredulous tone; this one lacks all the venom and mockery that the one in Lena’s imagination held, and is instead replaced by an innocent disbelief. “How?”

Despite her fear, Lena can’t help but smile.

“Well, for starters, no one flies on a bus,” she teases, remembering the first hint of Kara’s alter ego. At first she had brushed it off, but soon the evidence was too clear; the sudden disappearance of Kara just moments before Supergirl appeared, the constant wearing of button-ups, the way Kara hugs just a little too tight sometimes when they hug. Hell, the Supergirl-shaped hole in the CatCo elevator was practically begging for Lena to draw the conclusion she’d already made.

Kara grins, a real smile, and looks down bashfully. There’s a rosy tint at the top of her rounded cheeks, the same tint that creeps into the tips of her ears. She’s blushing.

When she looks back up, her wide smile has faded into a smaller one, and her eyes are full of wonder and something else that Lena can’t quite place.

“You’re not mad?” Kara asks quietly, like a small child afraid their parents will yell at them for making a mistake.

Lena closes the space between them, wrapping her arms around Kara without thought and pulling her close. Her right hand moves slowly up and down the length of the blonde’s spine, a comfort mechanism she learned from Kara herself. She’s not sure if it’s imagined or not, but she thinks she feels the blonde burrow closer into her arms.

“I just wish you’d felt safe enough to tell me,” she says, a small pang of sadness pricking at her heart.

“I didn’t want to lose this. What Kara has with you,” Kara admits, her throat thrumming against Lena’s collarbone with each word. She is warm, so warm, and Lena’s eyes fall shut involuntarily at the sensation.

“You’re still Kara even when you’re wearing that cape,” Lena reassures. “You’re still you. And I…”

She pauses. It occurs to her that Kara has not responded to her confession. That familiar fear starts to seep in again, and she feels her body stiffen in response.

Kara picks up on it immediately, and her arms tighten around her torso. Slowly, she brings her face out of Lena’s neck so that her forehead rests in the crook, but her voice can easily be heard.

“I have another secret,” she whispers, and she knows the Kryptonian can hear the way her heartbeat shudders.

“Yeah?” Lena asks, daring to pull Kara closer. The blonde doesn’t protest as she curls into Lena’s side, nearly on the CEO’s lap. Lena bites her lip hard, fighting the urge to break into an ear to ear grin. Not yet.

“Yeah,” Kara replies, her cheek pressing against Lena’s collarbone. She’s smiling.

“I’m listening,” Lena says. It is blissfully silent save for the sound of their steady breathing and the distant city commotion several floors below.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, too. Since day one.”

Lena doesn’t push the grin back anymore. It is the first time she has smiled this genuinely since she was a child, young and innocent and pure. Pure. She feels pure again, as though her past and her history has fallen away in the arms of the Super breathing softly against her chest.

There are no more words to be said, and Lena thinks she prefers it that way; nothing could be as meaningful as what’s already been said. For a moment, they simply stay there, cuddled flush against each other in the late hours of the night, silent but at peace.

An idea comes to Lena’s mind, one she’s resisted more times than she can count. She considers for a moment that it may be too forward, but it is to no avail. She is weary from the stress of the night, and her exhaustion all but breaks the chains that would usually hold her back.

Gently, she turns her head and presses a soft kiss to Kara’s forehead, and her breath hisses out in a rush of air at the relief that the sensation brings. She melds into Kara, allowing her lips to linger on the blonde’s forehead because she can. She _can,_ and she suddenly doesn’t want to ever move. She just wants to stay here, kissing Kara’s forehead while they hold each other close, and never leave.

Her mind is quickly changed when Kara gently pulls back and looks up at her, her eyes a muted blue with dark circles forming beneath them. Her eyelids droop, and she looks as though she could fall asleep in an instant.

Lena’s eyes flit down, only for a moment, to the blonde’s slightly parted lips. Their breath mixes in the tiny space between them, warm and slow.

Lena can’t count the number of times she’s wanted to kiss Kara, but never like this. As they sit there, mere inches apart, it’s as if there’s no other option. Kara is already leaning forward as Lena’s eyes fall shut, and she leans forward to close the gap.

Their lips meet with gentle fervor, and the first thing Lena thinks is that every part of Kara must be soft like silk, because her lips are no exception to the rest of her. The second thing she thinks is that the kiss is so perfect, so natural, as though they’ve been doing this forever and it’s nothing new. But it is new, and despite the way it feels so normal, Lena’s mind is still filled with fireworks and there’s a rush in her chest that makes it hard to breathe. This rush is so much different than the one just minutes ago, and she gets the idea that it’s a feeling she should get used to. She can’t imagine never feeling this way when she’s kissing Kara.

Kissing Kara. That’s something she never thought she’d get to say.

The CEO didn’t think she could melt any more than she already is, but when Kara smiles into the kiss, she realizes how utterly wrong that assumption was. Pure and giddy laughter bubbles from her chest, and she lets it tumble from her lips carelessly. Kara hums in delight, and it vibrates against Lena’s lips.

They pull back only slightly so that they can breathe, but their foreheads stay pressed against each other. Their eyes meet again. Up close, Lena can see the flecks of green sprinkled in Kara’s sapphire orbs. She ponders for a moment the irony that the color of Kryptonite should be embedded in her eyes, but she’s quickly distracted by the beautifully pure giggle that passes through Kara’s lips soon after.

They stay this way, leaning against each other and fighting to keep their eyes open, for a few minutes longer. Sleep beckons, but Lena resists; she doesn’t want this moment to fade, and she wishes she could somehow capture it forever. It is the purest thing in Lena’s life and she is determined to commit it to memory.

“I’m so sleepy,” Kara whispers, and Lena smiles wearily.

“Me too,” she agrees, biting back a yawn as she does so. “We need to get some sleep. It’s almost two in the morning.”

Kara turns her face so that she can see the clock on the wall and raises an eyebrow in surprise. She must’ve been unaware of the quickly passing time. The idea that Kara got lost in the moment and forgot everything else makes Lena smile again.

“What’s that smile for?” Kara asks, her hand reaching up to gently cup Lena’s face. Without thinking, Lena leans into the touch, a sigh of relief escaping before she can stop it. She almost pulls away in embarrassment, but Kara is having none of it. She gently pulls the raven haired woman forward so that this time, it is her holding Lena.

“I’m just happy,” Lena replies simply. “Just happy.”

“And sleepy,” Kara adds, making Lena giggle tiredly into Kara’s neck. A phrase comes to mind, and she wonders what might happen if she says it. She decides to test it out.

“Fly us home, Supergirl,” she teases.

All at once, they’re outside, and Kara holds Lena bridal style in her arms as they float above National City. Traffic is sparse and quiet below them, but the nightlife is still alive. There’s a soft breeze blowing, and Kara’s hair flows beautifully over her shoulders.

“Hold on,” the blonde says, but Lena doesn’t bother to tighten her grip; she knows Kara would never let her fall.

They zip through the night air and in an instant, they land on Kara’s balcony. The apartment is dark and quiet inside.

Perfect.

They fall asleep in Kara’s bed, still dressed in work clothes, makeup still on and alarms all but forgotten. Work and reality awaits them when the sun rises, but it is not yet risen.

“Is it too soon to say I love you?” Lena asks, not even registering in her exhausted haze how forward she’s being. She’s almost asleep, but not quite.

“I love you, Lena Luthor,” Kara whispers, and Lena thinks that she could definitely get used to Kara Danver’s sleepy voice.

“I love you, Kara Danvers.”

Before she can even hear any sort of response, Lena is fast asleep.


End file.
